The Office will be taking its final bow with an extra long, reunion style episode. However, one cast member will be conspicuously absent.

Steve Carell and the iconic, inept character of Michael Scott will not be returning, reports Reuters.

"I think Steve felt, and I agree, that the 'Goodbye, Michael' episode was his goodbye and he didn't want to overshadow the ending that all the other characters deserved," said executive producer Greg Daniels in a conference call with Reuters.

However, fans can look forward to an unusually long episode on May 16. The sitcom, which normally has a half hour slot, is scheduled for a one-hour series finale. Daniels tells Reuters that he is trying to get the network (NBC) to eek a few extra minutes out of their primetime schedule.

"We are still hopeful of getting slightly more than one hour," Daniels said.

Since The Office follows characters shot by a fictional documentary crew, the premise of the finale revolves around the idea of a reunion of the characters after the documentary is shown on a local PBS station.

"I tried to think what outlet would shoot something like this and take nine years to do it," Daniels told The New York Times of his decision to have the documentary aired on a fictional version of a well known PBS station.

Although people will be looking to the finale to neatly wrap up nine seasons worth of story lines, according to Zap2it, Daniels is treating the last few episodes as one giant finale and hopes that fans will do the same.